On May 4th, the 1441 DWT Panamanian registered product tanker Tamaya 1 drifted ashore on a remote beach in Liberia near Robertsport, with no crew aboard. There appears to have been a fire in the ship’s deckhouse and one of two lifeboats was missing. The vessel’s last known position was recorded on April 22, 2016, as the ship was steaming southward towards Senegal after leaving the port of Dakar. A statement from the Liberian Ministry Of National Defense read: ‘During the search on board the vessel, it was discovered that the abandoned vessel is an oil tanker and but so far no information was established regarding the number of crew members as no crew members were found on board … ‘It was further gathered by the Liberian Coast Guard (LCG) that the vessel was gutted by fire, leaving the bridge (Upper and Control Center) burned along with all documents’.

At this point, what happened to the ship and its crew is all speculation. The ship was operating well south of the region where pirate activity hs been reported. One source speculated about the involvement of Boku Haram.  Some have suggested that the ship’s owner may have just gone broke and the crew simply abandoned the ship.

Thanks to Alaric Bond, Bob McKane and Phil Leon for contributing to the post.